Automatic machine for silk-screen printing on filled bottles of flexible material with flat faces

ABSTRACT

Improvements in machines for silk-screen printing on filled bottles of flexible material with flat faces, in which the bottle is compressed transversely during the printing operation in order to stiffen the face to be printed.

D United States Patent [151 3,659,522

Dubuit 1 51 May 2, 1972 54] AUTOMATIC MACHINE FOR SILK- 2,602,393 7/1952Hirschey ..101/37 SCREEN PRINTING 0 FILLED 2,818,799 1/1958 Hayward..53/131 x 3,024,722 3/1962 1311115011, S1. 8t 8]... ..i0]/40 AT FACES3,072,044 l/1963 Jones ..101/35 WITH 3,078,792 2/1963 KefStm'L...101/124 x 3,090,300 5/1963 Dubuit ..10l/123 [72] Inventor gzg' g zl's g60 Rue 3,267,842 8/1966 Resnick et a1. ..101/40 3,302,559 2/1967 Va1yi101/36 [22] Filed: Sept. 19, 1969 3,524,295 8/1970 Spaulding ..53/l4 ppN03 859,444 3,221,643 12/1965 Rudolph et a1 ..l01/115 X FOREIGN PATENTSOR APPLICATIONS [3 F r ign Application Priority Data 595,772 4/1934Germany ..53/131 Oct. 31, 1968 France ..172134 Primary Examiner ,Roben EPumey Assistant Examiner-Clifford D. Crowder [52] [1.8. CI ..l01/35,53/131, 101/126 Atmmey Young & Thompson [51] Int. Cl. ..B41f 17/24 [58]Field of Search ..101/3537, 123, 57 ABSTRACT Improvements in machmes forsilk-screen printing on filled 56] References Cited bottles of flexiblematerial with flat faces, in which the bottle is compressed transverselyduring the printing operation in order to stiffen the face to beprinted.

9 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patented May 2, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 mm at2 Q [00/5 6/4 aaer 3060/;-

Patented May 2, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 m ul AUTOMATIC MACHINE FORSILK-SCREEN PRINTING ON FILLED BOTTLES OF FLEXIBLE MATERIAL WITH FLATFACES The present invention relates to silk-screen printing on bottles,filled and of flexible material, with flat faces.

The technique of silk-screen printing is well-known; it consists ofpassing the printing ink by means of a squeegee through a screen of silkor other material, of which some of the meshes are free and representthe design to be printed, while the others are closed.

Automatic machines which utilize a technique of this kind thus generallycomprise a screen-carrier and a squeegee carrier, both of which aregiven a vertical lifting movement necessary for the presentation andwithdrawal of the objects to be printed, and which are further actuatedwith respect to each other in a relative horizontal reciprocatingmovement necessary for the printing itself; the screen-carrier may befixed and the squeegee-carrier may be movable, or conversely thesqueegee-carrier may be fixed and the screen-carrier movable.

Up to the present time, bottles of so-called plastic flexible materialwere printed while empty, both in the case of bottles with flat faces,cylindrical bottles, conical bottles or oval bottles.

In all cases, the precaution was taken of blowing, compressed air intothe interior of the bottle at the moment of printing, which rendered thewall of the bottle to be printed sufficiently rigid to receive itscorrect printing.

Now, there is being developed at the present time a technique in whichplastic bottles are filled and closed immediately after they have beenblown.

Machines for silk-screen printing utilized up to the present day aretherefore inoperative in this case, since as the bottles are filled andclosed, it is impossible to blow air into them at the time of printingwhile moreover this operation cannot be carried out correctly.

The present invention has for its object a machine which enables thisdrawback to be obviated.

According to the invention, an automatic machine for printing with asilk screen, of the kind comprising a screen-carrier and asqueegee-carrier each actuated with a vertical lifting movement andfurther actuated with respect to each other in a relative horizontalreciprocating movement, is characterized in that, for printing filledbottles of flexible material with flat faces, it comprises, insynchronism with the said movements, on the one hand a forward-movementmeans adapted to cause the bottles to move step-by-step under the silkscreen, the said bottles lying down flat, and on the other hand, acompression means adapted to apply lateral pressure to each bottle atthe time of printing.

It is this compression, a characteristic feature of the invention, whichprovides a stiffening effect sufficient to permit correct printing andwhich is fairly analogous to that previously obtained by inflation.

According to a particular form of embodiment, the screencarrier ishorizontally movable in a to-and-fro movement, while thesqueegee-carrier is fixed, and the associated forward-movement meanscomprises at least one moving finger fixed on the said screen-carrierand co-operating with a guiding passage in which the said finger pushesforward the bottles to be printed one by one, this guiding passage beingformed by two walls which come gradually closer together over at leastpart of their length, thereby ensuring the desired compression of thebottles.

At each cycle of the machine, a bottle is engaged in the guidingpassage; pushed by the upstream bottle or bottles engaged in a similarmanner in this passage by the moving finger during the course of thefollowing cycles, it progressively arrives directly underneath the silkscreen and is driven with this latter to receive the desired impressionwhile it is compressed laterally by the walls of the said passage.

This constitutes a simple and effective solution, economic in itsutilization and advantageously easy to fit on machines already inexistence.

The characteristic features and advantages of the invention will befurther brought out in the description which follows below, given by wayof example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, inwhich:

F161 is a plan view of a machine according to the invention;

F162 is a view of this machine in elevation;

FIG.3 is a lateral view of the machine;

FIGA shows a detail of FIGJ to a larger scale;

FIG.5 is a view in cross-section taken along the line V-V of FIGA, for afirst position of a bottle to be printed;

FIG.6 is a view in cross-section similar to FIGS, for a second positionof the said bottle;

F1G.7 is a view similar to that of FIG.6, and relates to an alternativeform of embodiment;

FIGSB and 9 are views similar to that of P164, and relate respectivelyeach to an alternative form of construction.

For the sake of cleamess, certain parts of the machine according to theinvention have been eliminated from certain of these figures, so thatthey cannot always be found on all the figures.

In accordance with the form of embodiment shown in these figures, theinvention has been applied to a silk-screen printing machine of the sametype as that described in U.S. Pat. No.3,090,300.

A machine of this type will only be described briefly in the presenttext.

It comprises essentially two horizontal fixed rods 2, 2' and two movinghorizontal rods 3, 3' coupled together by articulated arms 4, 4 and 5,5', and forming with these arms an assembly of deformableparallelograrns.

On these rods there are slidably mounted, on the one hand ascreen-carrier l0 and on the other hand, a squeegee-carrier 11.

The screen-carrier is constituted by two vertical arms 12, 13, slidablymounted on the rods 3, 3' and carrying a double horizontal guide-bar 14.This double guide-bar 14 carries in its turn, in a manner adjustable inposition, horizontal arms 15, 15 on which a screen can be fitted. Ascreen of this kind has been shown diagrammatically in chain-dottedlines in FIG.1.

As can be seen from FlG.1, the double guidebar 14 is further rigidlyfixed to a driving unit 16, the function of which will be explainedlater.

The squeegee-carrier 11 comprises a horizontal arm 17 (FlG.1) slidablymounted on the rods 2, 3; this arm 17 is extended towards the front,where it is articulated on a vertical arm 19(FIG.3). This vertical arm18 is articulated at its lower portion on an arm 19 slidably mounted onthe rod 3', and carries a horizontal arm 20 on which a squeegee 21 canbe mounted in an adjustable position.

The general movement of the machine is effected by means of a motor 25(F162), which drives through a transmission 26, the input shaft of aspeed-reduction gear 27, which comprises two output shafts. On one ofthese output shafts, at the rear of the machine, is keyed a pinion 28which drives, by means of a chain 29, a pinion 30 which is keyed on themain shaft 31 of the machine.

On this shaft 31 are keyed a cam 32 and a cam 33 (see FIGJ).

As described below, the cam 32 ensures the lifting move ment of thescreen-carrier and the squeegee-carrier. In order to do this, asubstantially horizontal lever 34 is pivoted at 35 on the frame of themachine and carries a roller 36 held in contact with the periphery ofthe cam 32. At its other extremity, the lever 34 is coupled by a tie-rod38 to the lever 5, extended towards the rear for that purpose.

The profile of the cam 32 is such that the lever 34 is alternatelylowered and lifted, which causes an alternate lowering and lifting ofthe movable rods 3, 3' with respect to the fixed rods 2, 2 and thereforea lowering and a lifting of the screen-carrier 10, and thesqueegee-carrier 1 l.

As described below, the cam 33 effects the to-and-fro movement of atrolley 40 (1 10.1), slidably mounted on the rod 2' and capable of beingcoupled by a fork 41 either to the driving unit 16 of the screen-carrier10, as shown, or to the arm 17 of the squeegee-carrier 11.

For the reciprocating drive of the trolley 40, the cam 33 cooperateswith two rollers 43, 43' carried by a horizontal guidebar 44 mounted soas to slide longitudinally in a fixed block 45, and this guide-bar 44carries a roller 143 which cooperates with a lever 145, pivotallymounted at 146 and coupled by a crank-arm 46 to the trolley 40.

According to the invention, the frame of the machine is provided with atable 50 on which pass the bottles B to be printed. These bottles are offlexible material, and they are closed after being filled with acontents of any kind. In addition, these bottles have flat faces; in theexample shown, they have a square transverse section.

The travel of the bottles B on the table 50 is effected successively bymeans of a supply conveyor 51, a guiding passage 52,

an evacuation conveyor 53 and a collecting table 54 (see FlG.1).

In accordance with the form of embodiment shown, the conveyor 51comprises two parallel driving chains 55, 55' each passing over twopinions 56, 56 (see F163). The pinions 56 which are keyed on a commonshaft 57, are driving pinions, the said shaft 57 carrying (see FlG.2) apinion 58 driven by the front outputshaft of the reduction gear 27through the intermediary successively of a chain 59, a bevel gear 60, achain 61 and a pinion 62.

The chains 55, 55 extend substantially perpendicularly to the rods 2, 2and 3, 3' of the machine and are provided at regular intervals withdriving lugs 65.

As can be more clearly seen from FIG.2, these chains 55, 55 travel oneach side of a plate 66 on which the bottles B slide when they areimpelled by the lugs .65 of the said chains, the bottles B being guidedlaterally in this movement by two vertical parallel end plates 67, 67and being laid down flat, transversely with respect to the chains 55,55.

The guiding passage 52 extends parallel to the rods 2, 2' an 3, 3' ofthe machine, directly below the screen-carrier 10.

This guiding passage is constituted by two vertical guiding end-plates68, 68', the front plate 68 being interrupted at the outlet of thesupply conveyor 51, as is more clearly seen from FlG.l, and beingprovided at this outlet with a bent-back extremity 69 forming anenlarged mouth for the passage 52. The end-plates 68, 68 preferably comecloser to each other in the direction away from this mouth, until theyare arranged with respect to each other at a distance which is justequal to or slightly less than the width of a bottle B.

The evacuation conveyor 53 is a rolling belt arranged in the extensionof the guiding passage 52. It passes over two drums 70, .70', the drum70 being driven by the front output shaft of the reduction gear 27through the intennediary successively of a chain 71 and a pinion 72 (seeFIG.2).

At the extremity of this travelling belt 53 an abutment plate 73 isarranged transversely, in co-operation with a double-acting pneumaticjack 75 which is arranged upstream of the abutment 73, and the rod 76 ofwhich carries a push-plate 77. The control electro-valve of this jack(not shown) is controlled by a micro-contract acting in dependence on acam 78 keyed on the rear extremity of the general driving shaft 31 ofthe machine (see FlG.l).

In addition, according to the invention, the double guidebar 14 of thescreen-carrier trolley is provided with an additional arm 80. This armitself carries a forward-movement finger 81 arranged in the axis of theguiding passage 52.

The installation is completed by two burners, one 90 arrangedtransversely above the supply means 51, the other 91 arrangedtransversely above the evacuation belt 53.

The operation of this machine will now be described.

For the description of this operation, it will be assumed that,

as shown, the screen-carrier 10 which is movable in a to-andfrohorizontal motion, due to the coupling of its block 16 to are;

the trolley 40, and the squeegee-carrier 1 1 are in the loweredposition. It will also be assumed that in the axis of the guidingpassage 52, the bottles B1, B2, B3 and B4 are successively arrangedend-to-end lying flat, the bottle Bl having already been printed and thebottle B2 being about to be printed, and that the moving finger 81 is inthe immediate vicinity of the bottom of the bottle B4.

The screen 1 10, FIG. 1 is in contact with the bottle B2.

The trolley 40 then drives it horizontally in the direction of the arrow100 of FlG.1, while the squeegee 21 remains fixed. During the course ofthis movement of the screen, the forward-movement finger 81 pushes thebottle B4 and therefore the bottles B3 and B2, so that this latterremainsfixed with respect to the screen.

During such an accompanying movement of the screen and the bottle B2,the ink forced by the squeegee 21 passes through the meshes of thescreen and thus effects the printing desired.

During this printing operation, the bottle B2 is strongly clampedlaterally by the side-plates 68, 68' of the guiding passage 52, so thatit offers a relatively rigid surface to the screen, in a similar mannerto that which takes place in the usual machines in which the bottles areinternally inflated for that purpose.

As regards the bottle B1 which had been previously printed. this ispushed by the bottle B2 on to the belt 53 which evacuates it in thedirection of the table 54 as will be described later.

At the end of the printing movement, the screen-carrier and thesqueegee-carrier nove upwards and the screen-carrier 10 is returned tothe rear with a movement in the opposite direction to that of the arrow100. I

During this return movement, the lugs 65 of the supply conveyor 51 bringa fresh bottle into application against the rear side-plate 68 of theguiding passage 52 to replace the bottle B4 which has been previouslyintroduced into the mouth 69 of this passage. I

As it passed by, the burner has treated this bottle following the knowntechnique of treatment of surfaces of synthetic material so as toprepare them for printing, and at the same time it has eliminated anywater which could soil the surface to be printed.

At the end of its return movement, the screen-carrier 10 is againlowered and during the course of this movement, the moving finger 81comes into place behind the bottle which has taken the place of thebottle B4. At the same time, the squeegee-carrier l 1 is also lowered.

A fresh printing impression is then possible, this operation beingapplied in this case to the bottle B3.

The bottles B carried away by the evacuation belt 53 pass directly underthe burner 91 which effects the drying of the printing which has justbeen carried out; these bottles then come into contact with theabutment-plate 73 arranged at the extremity of the evacuation belt.

The jack 75 which is synchronized with all the parts of the machine bythe cam 78, then comes into action, its piston 77 pushing the bottlessuccessively one by one on to the table 54, from which they areevacuated or transferred by any desired means.

To facilitate understanding of the invention, FlG.4 shows to a largerscale a detail of FlG.l. It can be seen that in accordance with the formof application shown, the distance L1 between the sideplates 68, 68' isslightly less than the width L2 of a bottle.

FlG.5 is a cross-section taken along the line VV of FIGA, passingthrough a bottle which has not yet been introduced into the passage 52.

FIG.6 is a similar view after the bottle has passed into this passage.It can be seen that the compression effect applied by the walls 68, 68results in a stifiening effect of the surface of this bottle to beprinted.

A similar effect is obtained if, in an alternative form, shown in FIG.7,the wall 68' is replaced by a piston 168 actuated by a jack 169, or byany other mechanical compression means.

FlG.8 is similar to FIG.4 and relates to an alternative form in whichthe bent-back portion 69 of the passage 52 is coupled to the side-plate68 by an oblique section 69.

FlG.9 is similar to F164 and illustrates an alternative form, in which,for the simultaneous printing of several bottles by means of a singlescreen and a single squeegee, the machine is provided with a pluralityof parallel guiding passages 52A, 52B, 52C, each respectively associatedwith a forwardmovement finger (not shown) carried by the said screen.

It will of course be understood that the present invention is notlimited to the form of construction described and shown, but covers allalternative forms of construction.

In particular, the presentation of the bottles underneath the screen forthe purpose of printing could be effected by means of a continuous belt,parallel or perpendicular to the axis of the machine, by means of alifting means, the upward movement of which is carried out at each cycleof the machine, or by the aid of any other appropriate means.

If this presentation is effected by an advancing finger as described,this finger, instead of being fixed to the screen and being lowered withit, could be carried by a conveyor mounted on the table of the machine,in such manner as to be withdrawn at the end of its travel and return tothe rear to engage another bottle.

Instead of the printing being effected by means of a moving screen and afixed squeegee, this printing could also be made by means of a fixedscreen and a moving squeegee.

It has been seen that for this purpose it is only necessary to free thedriving unit 16 of the screen-carrier from the driving trolley 40 and tocouple this driving trolley to the arm 17 of the squeegee-carrier 1 1,it being understood that in this case the moving finger 81 is replacedby any other appropriate forward movement means adapted to push thebottles while the screen-carrier and the squeegee-carrier are lifted,and while the squeegee-carrier carries out its return movement.

The relative horizontal movement of the screen-carrier and thesqueegee-carrier can be effected in any manner other than that describedabove, and in particular it may be actuated by pneumatic,electro-mechanical or like means.

What I claim is:

1. An automatic silk-screen printing machine for printing on filledflexible containers having flat faces, comprising a printing stationincluding a silk-screen printing mechanism, means for step-wise feedingsaid containers resting on one of their sides to said printing station,and compression means comprising a pair of walls spaced apart a distanceless than the uncompressed width of the containers that compress thecontainer between them and that engage substantial areas of thecompressed container on opposite sides of the compressed containers andrigidify the face of the containers to be printed both before thecontainers arrive in the printing station and during the printing on thecontainers, said compression means being independent of the printingmechanism and acting in a direction transverse to the effectivedirection of operation of the printing mechanism.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 said walls being convergent in thedirection of movement of said containers over at least a part of thelength of said walls.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and means for moving one of saidwalls transversely of the path of movement of the containers.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for feeding comprises amoving finger carried by a conveyor mounted on the frame of saidmachine.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a supply conveyorfor supplying containers to said means for feeding, the direction ofmovement of said conveyor being perpendicular to that of said means forfeeding.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the silk-screen printingmechanism comprises a screen and a squeegee movable relative to oneanother, and wherein the movement of the squeegee relative to the screenis coordinated with said stepwise movement.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 6 wherein the screen 15 horizontallyreciprocably movable and said squeegee is fixed, and said means forfeeding comprises at least one finger fixed relative to a screen andcooperating with a guiding passage in which said finger pushes thecontainers to be printed.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein said guiding passage isextended by an evacuation conveyor.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein, for the simultaneousprinting of a plurality of containers there are provided a plurality ofparallel guiding passages, each associated with means for feeding.

1. An automatic silk-screen printing machine for printing on filledflexible containers having flat faces, comprising a printing stationincluding a silk-screen printing mechanism, means for step-wise feedingsaid containers resting on one of their sides to said printing station,and compression means comprising a pair of walls spaced apart a distanceless than the uncompressed width of the containers that compress thecontainer beTween them and that engage substantial areas of thecompressed container on opposite sides of the compressed containers andrigidify the face of the containers to be printed both before thecontainers arrive in the printing station and during the printing on thecontainers, said compression means being independent of the printingmechanism and acting in a direction transverse to the effectivedirection of operation of the printing mechanism.
 2. A machine asclaimed in claim 1 said walls being convergent in the direction ofmovement of said containers over at least a part of the length of saidwalls.
 3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and means for moving one ofsaid walls transversely of the path of movement of the containers.
 4. Amachine as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for feeding comprises amoving finger carried by a conveyor mounted on the frame of saidmachine.
 5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a supplyconveyor for supplying containers to said means for feeding, thedirection of movement of said conveyor being perpendicular to that ofsaid means for feeding.
 6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein thesilk-screen printing mechanism comprises a screen and a squeegee movablerelative to one another, and wherein the movement of the squeegeerelative to the screen is coordinated with said step-wise movement.
 7. Amachine as claimed in claim 6 wherein the screen is horizontallyreciprocably movable and said squeegee is fixed, and said means forfeeding comprises at least one finger fixed relative to a screen andcooperating with a guiding passage in which said finger pushes thecontainers to be printed.
 8. A machine as claimed in claim 7 whereinsaid guiding passage is extended by an evacuation conveyor.
 9. A machineas claimed in claim 7 wherein, for the simultaneous printing of aplurality of containers there are provided a plurality of parallelguiding passages, each associated with means for feeding.